


Dearly Beloved...

by Altman



Series: Our Silver Lining [2]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games), Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Mentions of Violence, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Slow burn rhyiona, Swearing, like the slowest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-27 20:47:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14433777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altman/pseuds/Altman
Summary: After the fight against the Traveler, after everything, there are a lot of things that need to be settled.Rhys and Fiona must figure out what exactly the Vault left them with, before it maybe kills them.Janey Springs and Athena are getting married. Eventually. At some point. Not during this particular part of the story, unfortunately.Vaughn finds love. Sasha raises the bar on tavern ownership. Yvette keeps secrets.





	Dearly Beloved...

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the first 'Episode' of Our Silver Lining!  
> If you haven't read the Preamble, you should probably do that now, as it explains just about everything.  
> This episode focuses on the time during lead up and planning of Janey and Athena's wedding, and everything that entails.  
> Much like Tales from the Borderlands, Rhys and Fiona are our protagonists; there will be intermissions that follow the other characters, but that isn't the primary focus.  
> Hope you enjoy! Reviews and Kudos are appreciated.

Six months had passed since the Vault of the Traveler had deposited Rhys and Fiona roughly on its doorstep as light faded from the archway, leaving what amounted to a new landmark/tourist trap. Showing surprising business sense, August had partnered with the Children of Hyperion to run the place and proved adept at it.

There was certainly a much smaller body count than when he was running the Purple Skag.

 _Didn’t realize he had it in him,_ Rhys thought, pulling the hood up over his head as he stepped out on to the streets of Hollow Point, casting a glance at the bar in question, the ‘Under new management’ sign displayed proudly in the window; Sasha really had done a wonderful job with the place.

_Shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, and all that jazz._

That platitude could definitely apply to him at the moment; his simple outfit did nothing to call attention to his status as CEO of a, well, minor, but up-and-coming corporation. A dark red weather-beaten jacket, with a few miscellaneous patches on the back and his signature asymmetric stripes down the left side, covered a simple hoodie — black, naturally — and offset the grey cargo pants nicely. Unlike his first version of this outfit, the Atlas logo was nowhere to be seen; Fiona had been laughing about his mistake for days, after he was nearly mugged minutes after stepping outside wearing it.

Combined with the well-worn combat boots and (purposefully unloaded) pistol at his hip, he could pass for a stylish Pandoran.

 _Maybe even a Vault Hunter,_ he mused, making his way towards Scooter’s… Towards the ‘Catch-A-Ride’ garage, keeping his pace unhurried. Luckily, no one was paying close enough attention to see him stumble on a cobblestone when he remembered his fallen friend.

===

Rhys could already hear Janey’s raised voice through the door, her yells presumably directed at her latest project.

“Aw, for the love of… C’mon, c’mon, start, you, you… Piece! Of! Junk!”

There was a metallic ‘clang’, followed by the sudden roar of an engine and a victorious cry, “Yes! Yes, there it is! Friggin’ finally!”

Readjusting his jacket, Rhys decided to capitalise on the good mood her success had inspired, and knocked on the door with his right hand, the sound nearly drowned out by the engine.

“What? Who’s there?” Janey yelled after a moment’s delay.

“It’s Rhys!” He replied, “Can I, uh, come in?”

The noise cut out, the door swung open, and the mechanic gestured him inside with a smile, “‘Course you can! Get your corporate ass in here, you damn sell-out!”

He rolled his eyes at her name calling, knowing there wasn’t any malice behind the barbs, slinging back one of his own, “Thank you, your highness, majesty of scrapyard wrecks.”

She punched him in the shoulder for that one, wincing as her fist made contact with the metal of his right arm

“Why does everyone keep forgetting about that?” He laughed, finally dropping his hood as he shut the door behind him.

Janey shrugged, moving to grab them something to drink, and Rhys used the opportunity to take a look around. The garage, messy as always, was filled with machines in various states of disassembly. Without using his Echo Eye, he attempted to figure out what each project was.

“OK, so, those are definitely cars,” He said, pointing towards two half-finished vehicles.

His finger drifted up towards something on a raised platform, “Plane. Plane?”

“Plane.” Janey confirmed, raising an eyebrow as she handed him a bottle of soda, “Why?”

He ignored the question, focus shifting to the next object, “Athena’s bike. Obviously.”

“Rhys, seriously, what’s going on? You alright?” There was a note of concern creeping into her voice, “Did all those concussions finally catch up to ya?”

Cracking the top off the bottle with a flick of his right hand, Rhys shook his head and then took a deep drink.

 _Here it goes,_ he thought to himself, pushing the sudden surge of anxiety down, _just like a presentation._

“Two things,” he began, releasing that many fingers from the bottle, “First: I’ll absolutely be attending the wedding, probably won’t need a plus one; unless you didn’t invite Vaughn. Which you did, I talked to him this morning.”

Janey tilted her head, brows furrowed in surprise, “You came all this way to RSVP?”

“Yeah, well, that’s…” He sighed, flexing his right hand — a nervous habit — and took a deep breath before continuing, “The second thing seemed like it should be done in person, so I figured I might as well…”

“OK, what _is_ the second thing then?”

“I want you to train me. Teach me how to do,” he gestured around the room, “this. Building, repair, maintenance, anything and everyth-”

She shook her head, cutting him off with a raised hand, “Rhys, I’m… Look, as flattered as I am that you’d ask me, I’m no teacher.”

“Neither was Athena, but Fiona and Sasha learned just fine.” He countered, “Janey, I-I’m sick of feeling so damn useless!”

“Nothing I had done mattered when we were recruiting the team to take down the Traveler! Whenever it came down to it, I just stumbled into the right thing to do, over and over.”

His shoulders slumped, and he took a swig of soda. Bringing the bottle to his forehead, he closed his eyes and focused on the feeling of the cool glass against his skin, “Sorry. You, you gave your answer, I need to respect that.”

The silence seemed to stretch on for hours, before Janey spoke up again, “Why?”

“Because, I… I’ve always liked working with machines, just never had much time for it working my way up the corporate ladder.” He said with a shrug, opening his eyes, “And now, I figured I could maybe make myself useful for once.”

“Useful, huh? Yeah, I get that.” Janey nodded, scratching the back of her neck, “Hanging around with Vault Hunters can make us… normal-ish folks feel redundant.”

One of her eyebrows quirked upwards, and she tilted her head to the side, voice taking on a more playful tone, “That the only reason? Nothing t’do with Fiona?”

Rhys coughed, soda surging up into his nostrils, “Well, I mean, she’s, uh, my friend. And I want to help, but not just her.”

She nodded, considering his answer; her fingers left smudges of grease where she scratched her cheek, and Rhys concluded that his work wardrobe was going to need significant updates to cope with the garage if Janey changed her mind.

“Alright. Alright, OK, let’s do it,” The mechanic sighed, “but I expect you to pull your own weight.”

“YES!” He yelled, pumping his fist in the air victoriously, before he realized what he was doing.

“I mean, err, thank you. You won’t… regret… this…” His words trailed off as tried to adjust a non-existent tie around his neck, knowing his face was probably bright red.

Janey, however, didn’t seem to be paying much attention to him, having doubled over in fit of laughter at his outburst.

“Aw, that… that was downright… adorable,” She wheezed, glancing up at him, “Y’know, if I’d realized it meant… so much to ya, I’d have agreed right away.”

“Yeah, well, sincerity isn’t exactly something I’ve had a lot of practice with.” He explained sheepishly, running his left hand through his hair, “But I hope to change that.”

With an excited smile, she walked over to her workbench, grabbing a tool-belt hanging on the wall and adding to it a few of the scattered implements strewn across the table. Rhys approached cautiously, his unease validated when something came spinning at his head, Janey’s cry of ‘Heads up!’ his only warning.

The fact that he managed to catch the wrench with only a small scream was testament to how far he’d come since that day in Vasquez’s office; the Hyperion Lackey would have been struck in the face (and died from blunt force trauma and/or embarrassment), and the reluctant not-quite-a-Vault-Hunter would’ve managed to duck.

Now, the CEO of Atlas felt the shock of the impact travel up his left arm as he closed his fingers around the wrench and swore, wondering why in the hell he kept not using his goddamn prosthetic.

 _Seriously,_ he bemoaned, _it’s practically made for stuff like this._

Janey laughed, offering him the belt, “Nice catch! Thought for sure I’d getcha.”

“Then why would you throw it?” He demanded, snatching it from her with his free hand.

“Simple: you’ll probably have to deal with worse from angry customers, an’ there’s no point in training you if you’re just gonna bite it the first time someone chucks somethin’ at ya.” Her explanation, which he grudgingly accepted, was accompanied by a shrug.

“Oh, and lose the jackets, or you’ll pass out.”

===

Splitting his time between Hollow Point and Atlas HQ wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, but over the next few months, Rhys fell into a comfortable rhythm, traveling back and forth every few days; rigging up a dedicated ECHO comm in what had come to be ‘his’ corner of the garage — curtained off for privacy, of course — made things more manageable, though he still had to duck out of his training with Janey when the occasional crisis called for his presence.

Athena tolerated him, not quite sure how to feel about his revival of Atlas, though she had warmed up a little as it became clear that he was serious about his apprenticeship.

At the moment, he was messing around with the engine of a half-disassembled truck, laying out the pieces as he took it apart. A horn honked out front, not one of their regulars by the sound of it.

“Hey, can you get that?” Janye said, voice muffled from where she was working under the truck, “I’ll be out in a few minutes, once I’m finished here.”

“Uh, yeah, I’ll see what’s up,” Rhys replied, wiping his hands on the legs of his coveralls, barely registering any added stains. No big deal, just his first solo customer interaction, that’s all.

Making his way to the doors, he felt his left palm tingle as he remembered the wrench.

“Nothing you can’t handle, Rhys,” He muttered to himself, fighting the urge to try and fix his hair, “Just stay calm, and…”

“Rhys? Is that you?” A familiar voice called out as he stepped into the midday sun, “What are you doing here?”

 _Ah. Fan-fucking-tastic,_ he thought, taking stock of the sorry state of the vehicle in front of him, saying nothing of its owner’s somewhat ragged outfit.

“Fiona! Hey, you… you!” He laughed, forgetting all about the grease as he ran a hand through his hair, “How’s it hanging?”

**{Ag}**


End file.
